WICHITA, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 2026--
Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, today announced its new service facility at Essendon Fields Airport in Melbourne is now open for customers, expanding factory-direct support for Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker customers across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The purpose-built facility strengthens Textron Aviation’s global service network and reflects the company’s long-term commitment to expanding capacity and enhancing customer support throughout aircraft ownership.
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“We’ve supported customers in Australia for decades, and we continue to invest where our customers tell us they need more capacity and faster access to factory direct expertise,” said Brian Rohloff, senior vice president, Global Customer Support, Textron Aviation. “The Essendon Fields facility is a significant investment in a highly important region, strengthening our service network and expanding service capability, parts access and technical support across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.”
The new facility more than doubles the footprint of Textron Aviation’s previous Essendon Fields operation to more than 35,000 square feet (3,343 square meters) and is designed to support the more than 1,400 Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker aircraft operating across the Asia-Pacific region. Developed based on customer feedback, the location features expanded space for servicing aircraft to help reduce downtime, an on‑site Textron Aviation parts stockroom to improve parts availability and a more comfortable customer lounge for use while aircraft are being serviced.
The Essendon Fields service center complements Textron Aviation’s broader investment strategy to strengthen regional support across Australia, alongside recent facility expansions and upgrades in Perth. Located at one of Australia’s most established aviation hubs, the new facility also reflects close collaboration with Essendon Fields Airport to support the continued growth of business aviation and aircraft maintenance in the region.
“Our investment in the new Textron Aviation service center underscores Essendon Fields’ commitment to building Australia’s most capable and connected business aviation precinct,” said Brandan Pihan, CEO, Essendon Fields. “As the closest airport to the Melbourne CBD, Essendon Fields is the most convenient choice for business aviation customers. Textron Aviation’s long-term commitment ensures the retention of skilled jobs and service capability at Essendon. It also advances our Airport Master Plan by consolidating operations on the main airfield, improving safety and efficiency, and responds to strong demand for new hangar space.”
Textron Aviation will host a formal grand opening event for the Essendon Fields service facility in August, inviting members of the media, customers and community leaders to officially mark the opening of the site. Additional details will be shared closer to the celebration.
About Textron Aviation Customer Support
Textron Aviation, through its Beechcraft and Cessna brands, is renowned for its unrivaled global service network dedicated to complete life-cycle support. In addition to its expansive company-owned footprint, Textron Aviation’s customers have access to a global network of more than 300 authorized service facilities. Textron Aviation also offers a mobile support program featuring more than 40 mobile service units and on-site service technicians and support. Find additional information about Textron Aviation’s service programs at http://txtav.com/en/service.
About Textron Aviation Inc.
We have been inspiring the journey of flight for nearly 100 years. Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. company, has empowered our collective talent across the Beechcraft, Cessna, Hawker and Pipistrel brands to design and deliver the best aviation experience for our customers. With a range that includes everything from business jets, turboprops, light and high-performance pistons, to special mission, military trainer and defense aircraft, Textron Aviation has the most versatile and comprehensive aviation product portfolio in the world and a workforce that has produced more than half of all general aviation aircraft worldwide. Customers in more than 170 countries rely on our legendary performance, reliability and versatility, along with our trusted global customer service network, for affordable, productive and flexible flight. For more information, visit www.txtav.com.
About Textron Inc.
Textron Inc. is a multi-industry company that leverages its global network of aircraft, defense, industrial and finance businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell, Cessna, Beechcraft, Pipistrel, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO, and Textron Systems. For more information, visit: www.textron.com.
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements which may project revenues or describe strategies, goals, outlook or other non-historical matters; these statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Textron Aviation opens new Melbourne service facility at Essendon Fields airport, expanding support for Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker customers in APAC
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As civil rights advocates protest, Republican lawmakers in several Southern states are seizing on the opportunity afforded by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to redraw congressional districts ahead of the November midterm elections.
The latest state to jump on the redistricting bandwagon is Tennessee, where a special legislative session is to begin Tuesday, a day after a similar session kicked off in Alabama. In Louisiana, lawmakers also are making plans for new U.S. House districts after the Supreme Court last week struck down the state's current map.
The high court’s ruling said Louisiana relied too heavily on race when creating a second Black-majority House district as it attempted to comply with the Voting Rights Act. The ruling last week significantly altered a decades-old understanding of the law, giving Republicans in various states grounds to try to eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Democrats.
It could lessen congressional representation for Black Americans and other minorities, reversing decades of gains in minority voting rights.
President Donald Trump has been encouraging more states to join in redistricting as Republicans seek to hold on to their narrow House majority in this year’s elections.
Alabama lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday on legislation that would allow a special congressional primary, if the Supreme Court clears the way for the state to change its U.S. House districts.
In light of the court's ruling on Louisiana's districts, Alabama officials have asked the high court to set aside a judicial order to use a U.S. House map that includes two districts with a substantial number of Black voters and instead let the state revert to a map previously passed by Republican lawmakers. That map could help the GOP win at least one of those two seats currently held by Democrats.
Alabama's primaries are scheduled for May 19. If the Supreme Court grants the state's request after or too close to the primary, the legislation under consideration would ignore the results of that primary and direct the governor to schedule a new primary under the revised districts.
“This is the voice of the people,” Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said while promoting the Republican plan. “We had three judges determine how five million people were supposed to vote, and I don’t think that’s the way.”
During a House committee hearing, several Black residents urged lawmakers not to change the current congressional districts.
“Representation matters — not just politically but in access, in power and in who gets to be heard,” said Eliza Jane Franklin, of rural Barbour County.
Republican Gov. Bill Lee called Tennessee lawmakers into a special session to consider a plan that could break up the state’s lone Democratic-held U.S. House district, centered on the majority-Black city of Memphis. The move comes after pressure from Trump.
The candidate qualifying period in Tennessee ended in March, and the primary election is scheduled for Aug. 6.
Some clergy members have denounced the plan to split Memphis’ congressional district, and Martin Luther King III sent a letter to Tennessee legislative leaders expressing “grave concern” about it.
“This decision undermines the work that my father, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., carried out to help secure passage of the Voting Rights Act,” he wrote, noting that his father was assassinated in Memphis. He added: “Do not dismantle the only Congressional district that provides Black voters in Memphis a fair opportunity to have a voice in our democracy. Do not take this nation back to the days of Jim Crow.”
After last week’s Supreme Court decision, Louisiana moved to delay its May 16 congressional primary to allow time for lawmakers to approve new U.S. House districts.
Louisiana state Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, a Republican who chairs a Senate committee tasked with redistricting, told The Associated Press that his committee plans to hold a public hearing Friday. Kleinpeter said lawmakers are still weighing their options, including bills that would eliminate one or both of the state’s two majority-Black Congressional districts.
Democrats and civil rights groups have filed several lawsuits challenging the suspension of Louisiana's congressional primary. They are encouraging people in Louisiana — where early voting already is underway — to go ahead and cast votes in the congressional primaries in case courts later allow them to be counted.
Legislative voting districts typically are redrawn only once a decade, after a census, to account for population changes. But Trump urged Texas Republicans last year to redraw U.S. House districts to give the party an advantage. Democrats in California responded by doing the same, and then other states joined in.
Florida became the eighth state to enact new House districts when Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday he had signed a redrawn map passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature. It could help Republicans win as many as four additional House seats. The new map was immediately challenged in court as a partisan gerrymander that violates a Florida constitutional provision against drawing districts that favor one political party over another.
All told, Republicans think they could gain as many as 13 seats from new congressional districts in five states, while Democrats think they could pick up as many as 10 seats from new districts adopted in three states. The newly proposed redistricting in Southern states could add to the Republicans’ tally.
Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama, and Lieb from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press writers Jack Brook in New Orleans and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.
FILE - Pansies bloom in front of the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., April 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
